no shiat! That article was padded so much I kept scrolling down hoping to find the relevant paragraph. WTF? I don't care if he left his phone at home. I tend to bring my phone everywhere but it's actually quite rare for me to ever use it. It's good to have in case I need it but usually I don't.

I think that makes me more "old school" than just deciding to leave it home one day.

"Newspapers of the era couldn't reproduce photographs. Until the 1880s or so, photographs had to be turned into engravings before printing. So...yeah, it's bullshiat. Viral marketing for a movie, a hoax, whatever."

Add that to the picture used came four years after the newspaper did it's easy to call this one a hoax. But hey, this is the Internet.

Sun Khan:CUZN_Ovoids: Biggest troll of the year article OR pretty neat story, time will tell (like by tomorrow AM). FARK should definately follow up on this article.

I'll give you a hint: Don't bet on "pretty neat story".

Hint: Hoaxer overplayed his hand with inserting Lincoln photo in the alleged original newspaper.

If a hoax, the reader gets set up by hearing that he left his phone at home, so therefore can't take pictures. Though PT Barnum appears to have known Lincoln.

I dont buy the picture argument as an issue, if somebody wanted to make an example of the idea to submit for clarification for a patent, the example could contain bogus information just to establish a visual layout.

Uchiha_Cycliste:Draq: The juicy part, for those who can't get to the article:

Lincoln was requesting a patent for "The Gazette," a system to "keep People aware of Others in the Town." He laid out a plan where every town would have its own Gazette, named after the town itself. He listed the Springfield Gazette as his Visual Appendix, an example of the system he was talking about. Lincoln was proposing that each town build a centrally located collection of documents where "every Man may have his own page, where he might discuss his Family, his Work, and his Various Endeavors."

Holy shiat, it IS analog facebook.

To me it sounds like a hybrid of facebook and wikipedia. You can think of it as being more akin to the announcements section in many local newspapers. Lincoln was a tech geek during his lifetime.

My Uncle got a patent on a method of filing paperwork to protect intellectual property. Once they realized what was up, they sent him a letter saying it was retracted./He could probably still sue...everybody

Lincoln did actually receive a patent for a device for lifting boats, making him the only US president to hold a patent. I don't know why people feel the need to make crap up when reality is just as interesting.